“After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on Israel, we had to change our mode of operation and do things more on the quiet, but activities did not stop,” Avi Hasson, CEO of Startup Nation Central, a Tel Aviv-based nonprofit focused on the concept of innovation diplomacy, told JNS recently.
Startup Nation Central forges international relationships through Israeli innovation with countries that have signed Abraham Accords with Israel, such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, but also with countries that have not entered into formal relations with the Jewish state, such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
“Our mission is to strengthen Israel’s innovation ecosystem, given the important role it plays in its economy and its global standing. A lot of what we do is global positioning, telling the story of the Israeli ecosystem and connecting global players from all over the world,” Hasson said.
“Innovation diplomacy has changed the paradigm a little bit, because it was not about opening the Emirati market to Israeli companies, but doing the opposite. Instead of Israeli high-tech being the customer, in this case, the Emirates became the customer,” he continued.
“We sat down with ministries, corporate bodies, universities and hospitals to understand their needs and priorities, whether relating to a national vision or providing a specific solution, knowledge, or technology,” he added.
Hasson explained that part of Startup Nation Central’s activities relates to ecosystem building, which refers to Gulf countries’ effort to transform their economies from ones based on oil and gas to being knowledge-based.
“Forty percent of the Saudi GDP is based on oil. Israel is a knowledge-based economy; 20% of our GDP is high-tech. The Gulf countries are all very much interested to see how they can build a local innovation ecosystem. They look at Israel as a very interesting model,” he said.
In the area of defense, Hasson said, deals were signed even before the signing of the Abraham Accords, and this continues to be an important part of the accords as a countermeasure to the Iranian-led “axis of resistance.”
“Billion-dollar deals have been concluded with Morocco in the areas of drones and surveillance satellites,” he said.
Impressive numbers
“The bilateral trade numbers remain impressive, reaching about $3 billion [with the United Arab Emirates in 2024]. For Israel, this makes the UAE a significant partner,” he continued.
“The motivation that brought them to sign the accords did not disappear, but there are new sensitivities. We need to de-escalate the Gaza war, and the new U.S. administration is very much pushing in that direction,” Hasson said.
In countries where the business and public sectors are not as separated as in the West, it is very meaningful to formalize relationships, Hasson said, and normalization with the Saudis would open up tremendous opportunities for mutual collaboration.
“The national boundaries are irrelevant, we are all part of the same region that faces the same challenges, for instance, climate change. We can work together to bring about the best of all solutions,” Hasson said.
“Bringing the Saudis in would not mean just bringing one more country. It would really open up a totally different level of collaboration in the region that could create joint economic initiatives to serve the world,” he added.
Hasson is optimistic that there won’t be a retreat from the accords, but reiterated that countries in the region see de-escalation in Gaza and a solution for “the day after” the war as the conditions for rekindling relationships. “It’s on their agenda for many reasons, whether political or social,” he said.
“The collaboration created through joint research and technology creates codependences and shared opportunities. I think we have a unique potential for succeeding, especially with the UAE, given the complementary capabilities in Israel and UAE. Synergies are real,” he added.
Opportunities for cooperation in the fields of space, AI and machine learning are endless, Hasson said.